Book Review: Honor Among Thieves

This was a weird one. Even weirder is that the parts of the book I liked were the weird parts.

The Summary

Zara Cole’s criminal past takes a dark turn when prison suddenly becomes the safest place for her to be. Then she is selected by the Leviathans, an alien race of spaceships, to become an Honor, a group of humans permitted to travel with the Leviathans. Seeing no better options for her, she accepts the new title. If only she had known just how dangerous the journey would be….

The Analysis

So, for the weird stuff. The gist is that Zara develops a relationship with the sentient spaceship she travels with, Nadim. I guess it’s not explicitly called a “romantic” relationship, but it certainly has romantic undertones. A lot of reviewers go so far as to say Zara and Nadim fall in love. I think the text supports that claim pretty well. Beyond the Zadim pairing, we also have Beatriz, who travels with them. The three form a strong companionship, with Zara and Beatriz forming a pretty special friendship.

These ‘ships are the crux of this book. Once they meet, these relationships are enough to keep you interested, even if the rest of book isn’t. And, unfortunately, that’s how I felt. I loved our three main characters and our weird space love, but the rest of the book is pretty bland.

The first third or so takes place on Earth, and focuses only Zara. It chronicles the mistakes that lead up to her joining the Honors. A lot of danger is involved for Zara. Once she goes to space, all of this is forgotten. Why set up such a pivotal plot for it to ultimately become irrelevant and weak in light of everything that happens afterwards? I get that it sets up Zara’s character, but that could have been done just as easily with a little chapter about Zara getting arrested or something, instead of making us think her trouble on Earth was the main plot for so long.

The Leviathan conspiracy stuff was also pretty confusing. So confusing, in fact, that I don’t have anything to say about it.

The real point of a series starter, however, is to make me want to read a sequel. Honor Among Thieves is weird and confusing and slow at parts, but it makes me want to read more. So at the end of the day, I guess I can say the book fulfilled its goal.